Chapter Two - Persevering Presbyterians

Chapter Two: 1811-1829ReverendJohn MathewsReverendAmos ChaseReverendAbsolom McCradyBetween 1811 and 1814, membership rolls in the Union City Presbyterian Church rose and fell like the spring time level of French Creek. The baptismal record shows that the membership continued to grow slowly. On July 8, 1811, James Brian and his wife Catharine and their five children were baptized. Their children were Sarah, Betsy, Thomas, Isaac, and Martarn.In May 1812, Mrs. Sarah Thompson had her son William baptized, and in May 1814,Sarah and James Thompson had their son, Andrew, baptized. William Bracken and his wife presented their son for baptism in May 1912, and in January 1813, the Brian’s had another child baptized. John Cook’s daughter Margery Jane was baptized in May 1814, and his son John Matthew was christened in September 1815. The entire congregationmourned when Hannah Thompson died on April 13, 1815.Reverend John Mathews resigned his charge at Gravel Run in 1814, but he still preachedoccasionally at the church at Union until he moved West in the spring of 1817.When the War of 1812 ended, the Presbyterians at Union were still fighting apopulation problem in their church. Founding members Matthew Gray and HannahThompson had died and Sarah Thompson and her husband, James, moved West withReverend Mathews. But eventually the membership began to increase again.Reverend Amos Chase came from the East and settled at Centreville. He worked part timeas an agent fo the Holland Land Company, but he devoted most of his time to missionary work. He reported to his home missions office that to the east, northeast, and south from where he lived there was no minister of Christ for 100 miles. To the southwest, west, and northeast, there were three Presbyterian ministers who had to care for three or four congregations over vast distances.Sizing up the situation in Union, Reverend Chase gathered the few Presbyterians theretogether. He also included those people with friendly ears and hearts to the word of God. He sought out many families in the woods and talked to them about the importance of having God in their lives. In his circuit work, he rode many miles along paths marked out by slashes on trees. In winter, he held his meetings in the homes of Francis B. or James Gray, and in the summer he hel his meetings in barns. Often he would preach a sermon punctuated by the noises of sheep and cows or the cries of wild animals in the woods.Once a year Reverend Chase would administer the Lord’s Supper. He would borrow anelder or two fom Waterford and set up the table. A long table was used, and the people who expected to receive communion had to see the minister or an elder and get a “token.” After he was seated at the table he had to give the token back to the elder.Reverend Chase baptized both adults and infants, but there is no record of the baptisms.In fact, no church records were kept at all from the death of Matthew Gray in 1815, until 1826 when Reverend Absalom McCready took charge of the Union Church.By 1826, Sarah Thompson had moved away and James and Catharine Brian had left thePresbyterian Church to join the Baptist Church in Bloomfield. Matthew Gray and Hannah Thompson were dead. In spite of these membership ups and downs, the church had twelve members in good standing. These members were John and Rachel cook, Francis and Jane Gray, Charlotte Shrieves, William Shireves and wife, Richard and Peggy shrieves, HughWilson, _____Clark, and Margery Cook.In 1826, Reverend Absalom McCready settled at Wattsburg and divided his time in quarters between Middlebrook, Beaverdam, Wattsburg, and Union. He was young,energetic, zealous, and friendly. He liked people, but wasn’t afraid to reprove or admonish them when he felt they needed it in the Lord. He visited all of the families who had ever attended his preaching and talked at length with them and their children about personal piety and faith in Christ.One way he used to reach his widely scattered congregations was holding a four day protracted meeting in each of them once a year. The Presbytery had recommendedthat its churches hold four day meetings where the Lord’s Supper could be administered, and two or three ministers could officiate.The people and preaches attending the four day meetings usually kept a schedule. OnFriday, they observed a fast day. This didn’t mean they stopped eating, but instead they stopped working. On Saturday the ministers held a divine service to prepare everyone for communion. On Sunday they held the communion service and on Monday they held another service. The Sunday service, especially, was a long one and the addresses at thecommunion table tended to be long and varied. The congregation was expected to drop the daily cares of life and give all of its attention to the meetings while they continued. Families living near the place the meetings were held always put up strangers and sometimes their houses were full to the rafters for two or three days in a row.Reverend McCready began to notice more people attending the meetings. By now, Union had so gained in population that in 1829, there were 29 people casting votes in thepresidential election and arguing over the merits and demerits of Andrew Jackson for chief executive. The early pioneers of Union had chopped out main roads, but still had not done much turnpiking or bridging. For some people, the four day protracted meeting was their yearly link with the outside world and Reverend McCready their social as well as spiritual guide.The official notation in the Session Records says that on July 14, 1826, the Presbyterian Church at Union hired Reverend Absalom McCready to preach the gospel one fourth of his time at the Union congregation for $75 a year. His full salary amounted to $400 a year, and to earn this her served four congregations separated by miles of thick woods. He attended Presbytery regularly, sometimes riding as far away as Mercer, and always on horseback. He seemed to live on horseback, either going to preach or visiting the people ofall his congregations. And in the middle of his riding, he baptized new members and received them into the church at Union.In 1826, William Bracken who had moved away 12 years before, came back to Union.He had been an elder in the Waterford Church for many years and sometimes had come to the meetings at Union when Reverend Chase held them. Betsy Gray, John Gray,, Elenor Cook and Sarah Ann Cook were received in the full communion of the church at Union in January 1827. In June 1827, Robert and Jane Gray joined the church and also in June, their daughter Mary was baptized. In June 1827, Francis and Jane Gray had their son, Henry, baptized and on September 14, 1828, Sarah Shrieves was baptized. On the same day communion was served and Robert McCrary of Broken Straw and William Bracken and his wife were received into church membership. Reverend McCready also baptized two children for Richard Shrieves.In May 1829, William Cook joined into full communion with the Presbyterian Churchand Reverend McCready welcomed Sarah Thompson and her children back into thefellowship at Union. Sarah had been one of the first members of the church and had gone west with Reverend Mathews. While in Missouri she had lost her husband and struggled with sickness and disease for several more years. Finally, she returned to Union with her six children and rejoined the church.In the 1820s, the Presbyterian Church was the center of religious revival in Union. The winds of revival swept through the Erie Presbytery and spread to the Union congregation. The citizens of Union had built a school before Reverend McCready arrived and they invited him to hold his meetings in it as often as he wanted. He did this for about five years , added many new members to his church and touched the flinty hearts of many community people. By now, there were whispers in the community that the Presbyterians were a “priest-ridden people,” but Reverend McCready worried more about their souls than their tongues and continued to preach and pray for them.Presbyterian ProfileA Presbyterian Bear StoryBy the year 1831, bear were getting scarce in Union Township. A young man by the name of John Wilson arose one morning in June before daylight and when to a nearby deer lick. He got into the blind and a deer soon appeared. John shot the deer, hauled it out of the lick, bled it, and started out for a horse to carry it home. The path led through the farm of John Tuttle, which was then completely in the woods. Suddenly John saw a bear on the path in front of him. The bear spied John at the same time and leisurely climbed up a large basswood tree to where it forked, about fifty feet high.Now John faced a dilemma. He had brought no ammunition wit him. His gun was empty.If he went home to get a supply of ammunition, the bar might come down and go away. The alternative was to holler so loudly as to wake up his younger brothers, three quarters of a mile away and probably in the middle of their morning nap. John knew he had the throat and lungs to holler loudly enough, so he went ahead and hollered. It wasn’t too long until his brothers appeared on the path, one a little ahead of the other, without shoes or hats and fastening their suspenders as they ran.In the meantime, Aaron Taylor, the early riser who lived two miles away on theedge of Crawford County, had gone to the field for his cows and heard a noise.Thinking someone was in distress, he jumped on a young horse in the pasture andwithout saddle or bridle guided him to a path that led in that direction. Aftergoing about a mile, he came to some fallen timbers that the horse couldn’t get over, so he left the horse and went on foot at the top of his speed. When he reached John and the bear, a goodly number of men who lived closer were already on the ground with plenty of ammunition.A well directed rifle ball took the bear between the eyes and brought him to the ground. He was taken to old Mr. Wilson’s where they men met Jacob Shephard, now 60 years old, and who many years before had been the hero of the battle of Oil Creek Lake. He was making his way to the scene of the action as best he could.After partaking of a good breakfast prepared by Mrs. Wilson, all returned to their homes.In that neighborhood for many years after if anyone got excited and talked loudly, everyone would say, “They had treed the bear!”